02.08.2009 - After World Champion Vishy Anand failed to qualify for the final of the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship Levon Aronian was clear favorite to win the title against the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi. And indeed, the Armenian had no trouble to become Rapid World Champion. In fact, the biggest surprise of the final might have been the smooth way in which Aronian won. more...Picture galleryResults GRENKELEASING Rapid WCSGames GRENKELEASING Rapid WCS

02.08.2009 - Finally he made it! He has tried six times to win one of the Opens in Mainz, but this year the Azeri grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the ORDIX Open with a fantastic score. After 11 incredibly tough rounds he scored a record-breaking 10 points. Never before has a winner scored 10 points in the ORDIX in Mainz. Vugar Gasimov, Vladimir Akopian and Arkadij Naiditsch scored 9,5 points. more...Picture galleryResults Ordix OpenGames Ordix Open

Chess ClassicORDIX lunchbreak - Mamedyarov, Nakamura and Naiditsch on top

02.08.2009 - After eight rounds in the ORDIX Open, three players are on top with 7,5 points. Arkadij Naiditsch won against Landa and Ivan Sokolov, drew against Alexander Grischuk. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov started on Sunday with a draw, won a beautiful game against Najer and the last game before the lunchbreak he won against Sargissian. The newly crowned Chess960 champ Hikaru Nakamura won three games on Sunday morning against Andrei Sokolov, Gyimesi and Sasikiran. The Indian grandmaster had a completely winning position against the American, but lost on time. A tragic loss. Three more rounds will be played today. The top games can be followed live here. CCM9 Live-Portal

Chess ClassicDing Dong! Your wake-up call. Six rounds ORDIX Open!

02.08.2009 - It is not a secret that most chessplayers are notorious longsleepers. Getting up on a Sunday morning to play six rounds in the tough Ordix Open is not a perfect start of the day for everybody. To cheer up the players on this rainy Sunday morning, the Queen song “It’s a Beautiful Day” was played, minutes before the start of the 6th round: “It's a beautiful day- The sun is shining- I feel good - And no one's gonna stop me now, oh yeah”. Naiditsch must have had a good night sleep, because he was the only player with a perfect score on Saturday, who could win his first Sunday game against Landa. Quite remarkable, because the German number 1 had to play the GRENKELEASING rapid world championship in the evening session as well. Naiditsch plays 32 rapid games in three days! Can he keep this murderous pace? You can follow all the live action on the top boards here: CCM9 Live-Portal

01.08.2009 - Will World Champion Vishy Anand strike back? Will he be able to qualify for the final? On the first day of the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship Anand, 11 times winner of the Chess Classic Mainz, had only scored 1 point from 3 games and was trailing 1,5 points behind Aronian and Nepomniachtchi. However, everybody knew that an Anand in good shape can work miracles on the chess board. more...Picture galleryResults GRENKELEASING Rapid WCSGames GRENKELEASING Rapid WCS

01.08.2009 - The ORDIX Open is a fixed date in the chess calendar for many rapid chess lovers and this year no less than 694 participants made the yearly pilgrimage to Mainz. After the first five rounds, there are still eight players with a clean sheet: Grischuk, Sargissian, Meier, Mamedyarov, Naiditsch, Navara, Landa and Nielsen. Six more rounds will be played on Sunday. more...Picture galleryResults Ordix OpenGames Ordix Open

Chess ClassicORDIX Open started with 694 players

01.08.2009 - On Saturday, the biggest event of the Chess Classic week started, the 16. ORDIX Open with 694 players, among them many elite players. We counted 176 (!) players with an international title and 67 grandmasters! Two ex-world-champions started in the ORDIX today, Rustam Kasimdhzanov and Alexander Khalifman. Vugar Gashimov is the top-seed, but there is a lot of competition for him. Alexander Grischuk will try to become the first player to win the FiNet and ORDIX Open in one year. Hikaru Nakamura, who had a day off on Friday is one of the clear favourites. Has Gata Kamsky recovered after his dreadful loss in the last round of the FiNet? And what about experienced Open sharks like Bacrot, Navara, Bologan and many other top grandmasters? Questions that will be answered in the next two days. We are looking forward to 11 exciting rounds.
You can follow the top games live in the CCM9 Live-Portal.

31.07.2009 - In the FiNet Chess960 Open, Alexander Grischuk won his third Open title in Mainz and in the Livingston Chess960 computer world championship Rybka won her (remember, Rybka is a she) third world title. The program, developed by Vasik Rajlich won the four-game final on Friday 3-1 against Shredder and in the battle for third place DeepSjeng could secure third place in the mini-match against Ikarus. more...Picture galleryResults Livingston Chess960 Computer WMGames Livingston Chess960 Computer WM

31.07.2009 - The man with the cap was the sole leader after 10 nerve-breaking rounds in the 8. FiNet Chess960 Open, but in the final round, Gata Kamsky lost his only game against former world champion Rustam Kazimdzhanov. This loss paved the way for Alexander Grischuk, who won the massive Ordix Open twice, to clinch home his third Mainz Open title. He kept his cool in the last round against German ace Rainer Buhmann and won the 8. Edition of the FiNet Chess960 Open with 9,5 points. more...Picture galleryFiNet Open: List of participantsFiNEt Open: ResultsFiNet Open: Matches

Chess ClassicFiNet Lunchbreak – Two leaders after eight rounds

31.07.2009 - After eight rounds in the FiNet Chess960 Open we have two leaders with 7,5 points: Gata Kamsky and Alexander Grishuk. Grishuk won three games before the lunchbreak against Navara, Akopian and Mamedyarov. Kamsky won against Malakhov and Grigoriants but had to be content with a draw against Mamedyarov. In round nine, starting at 14.00 the battle of the titans Kamsky and Grishuk is scheduled. There is only one player with 7 points, Arkadij Naiditsch and a group of seven players with 6,5 points, lying in wait for a mistake on the first boards. So nothing is decided yet in the FiNet Chess960 Open! In the Livingston Chess960 computer tournament, Rybka is leading 1,5-0,5 against Shredder and needs one point to clinch home her third world title in a row. Don’t miss the action in Mainz! Follow the top games in the LIVE portal. CCM9 Live-Portal.

Chess ClassicFriday on my mind

31.07.2009 - Aah, Friday. The last day of the week. Time to start thinking about the weekend. Well, in Mainz we have a full packed top-level chess programme for you. At 10:00 AM the 6th round of the mighty FiNet Chess960 Open starts. Today, six rounds will be played and at about 18.00 we know who the winner will be. At 11.00 the last games in the Livingston Chess960 computer world championship will be played. Insatiable Rybka faces Shredder in a four-game grand finale. At 18.30 the world champion Vishy Anand will enter the stage to battle it out in the GRENKEleasing rapid world championship with Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtschi and Arkadij Naiditsch. If you cannot come to Mainz to see the games in the Rheingoldhalle, you can kill some friday work time by tuning in to the CCM9 live portal to follow the top games live. Enjoy! CCM9 Live-Portal.

30.07.2009 - When Levon Aronian and Nakamura sat down to play the final of the Chess960 World Rapid Chess Championship it was difficult to name a clear favorite. In the preliminaries Aronian had dominated the first day, Nakamura the second. Both are known as extremely strong blitz and rapid players, and both had shown their Chess960 skills on more than one occasion.
Taking this into account, the match was surprisingly one-sided. Nakamura simply won the first three games to become new World Champion – in a very convincing manner.
more...Picture galleryResults Chess960Rapid World ChampionshipGames Chess960Rapid World Championship

30.07.2009 - On the fourth day of the Chess Classic, the FiNet Chess960 Open started at 12.30 with 263 players. The chance for amateurs to meet a GM on the other side of the board was very good, because no less than 56 Grandmasters came to Mainz to play the Chess960 extravaganza! Incredible: the top 10 has an ELO average of 2717 and the top seeds are Gashimov, Grishuk, Bacrot, Kamsky and Mamedyarov. After five rounds today there is a Gang of Four sharing the lead with a 100% score: more...Picture galleryFiNet Open: List of participantsFiNEt Open: ResultsFiNet Open: Matches

Chess ClassicWhat's on in Mainz on Thursday?

30.07.2009 - The fourth day of the Chess Classic is another Chess960 day. At 12.30 we start the 8. FiNet Chess960 Open with some of the best players in the world. Is there a clear favorit? In a field with Gashimov, Grishuk, Bacrot, Kamsky, Mamedyarov, Kasimdzhanov, Naiditsch, Navara and more than 50(!) other grandmasters it is hazardous to predict a winner. The second day of the preliminaries of the Livingston Chess960 world championship started at 11.00 and later today we will witness a spectacular computer blitz exhibition. Rybka leads the field with a 100% score. In the evening session, at 18.30 we look forward to the final of the FiNet Chess960 world championship in which Hikaru Nakamura and Levon Aronian will battle it out in four Chess960 games. You can follow all the action Live in the CCM9 Live-Portal.

29.07.2009 - The second day of the Chess960 World Championship promised exciting chess: While Levon Aronian with 3 out of 3 seemed to be almost certain to play in the final, Hikaru Nakamura, Victor Bologan and Sergei Movsesian all had 1 point and could still cherish hopes for a spot in the final – provided things went right. Things became exciting indeed, but differently than expected.
Nakamura in particular was determined not to repeat the events from the previous day. As a result he invested much more time in the opening, which proved to be a good approach. Aronian was the first to suffer from the “new” Nakamura. more...Picture galleryResults Chess960 Rapid World ChampionshipGames Chess960 Rapid World ChampionshipInformations about the tournament and the
starters

29.07.2009 - Schmidt and Schmitt? „The two best German entertainers together – that’s a no-no!“, Hartmut Metz stated at the Champions Dinner in Mainz, which traditionally takes place at the start of the Chess Classic. As the chess world needs Hans-Walter Schmitt one should better not invite Harald Schmidt from Nürtingen, famous German TV star and Germany’s most successful and popular late night talker, said Metz. Fortunately, in Schmidt’s hometown Nürtingen a replacement was found: Isabel Delemarre. Chess fans will know her under her maiden name Werner who once became fourth in the World Junior Championship. For many years the WIM and her sister Veronika Kiefhaber were pillars of the chess club Karlsruher SF, which played in Germany’s Women’s First League. Their father, Clemens Werner, was several times cup winner of Baden and plays in Switzerland in the National League A for the SG Riehen. more...Picture galleryHomepage Isabel Delemarre

Chess ClassicChess960 day in Mainz

29.07.2009 - The third day of the Chess Classic Mainz has kicked off with the Mini FiNet Open for youngsters under 16 at 11.00 sharp. Today is also the first day of the Livingston Chess960 computer world championship. Rybka will try to defend her title against three formidable opponents: the German program Shredder, which has won many world titles, Deep Sjeng from Belgium, one of the best Chess960 programs in the world, winner of the internet qualification tournament and Ikarus, another German program, developed by the Kolss brothers. More Chess960 action tonight at 18.30 in the FiNet Chess960 world championship in which Levon Aronian showed his strength on the first day. He won three games. His opponents Nakamura, Movsesian and Bologan have one point. You can follow the games live in the spacious Rheingoldhalle. If you cannot make it to Mainz, click on the CCM9 Live-Portal button to follow the games on Internet.

28.07.2009 - Tactics rule. As Viktor Bologan explained in yesterday’s press conference, in Chess960 the random position of the pieces simply forces you to think of everything. In interviews Levon Aronian also stressed how important tactics are in Chess960. The first three rounds of the Chess960 Rapid World Championship confirmed this view. The games featured quite a number of unusual tactical situations – and it was Levon Aronian who handled them best. more...Picture galleryResults Chess960 Rapid World ChampionshipGames Chess960 Rapid World Championship